Whenever the Bears lose, it's always a difficult week in Chicago. For me, the losing isn't such a big deal. It's listening to all the fans howl at the moon and act as if their very lives have just been ruined because the Mediocrities of the Midway have failed them.
This week has been worse than usual, because the Bears lost a game AND lost Brian Urlacher to a season-ending wrist injury. All rational thought has gone out the window, as far as I can tell.
In between bloodcurdling screams of terror, uncontrolled sobbing and shaking their fists in anger at God above, Bears fans have called for the team to sign 36-year-old former Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks off the street to replace Urlacher. I would be reluctant to make such a move for multiple reasons.
First off, this is Sept. 15 and Brooks is unemployed. All through training camp and all through preseason, no one thought enough of Brooks to sign him. That should tell you something. Namely, NFL people don't think Brooks can play anymore. On personnel matters, I tend to trust NFL people more than the tired masses in Chicago.
Secondly, even if Brooks can still play, he'd be a square peg in a round hole. Brooks made his money as a weakside linebacker, not a middle linebacker. Last I checked, the Bears have one of the best weakside linebackers in the business in Lance Briggs.
The screaming meatheads want to move Briggs to middle linebacker and sign Brooks to play the weak side. So, essentially, they want to make two positions weaker instead of just one. Personally, I'd prefer to keep Briggs at the position where he is an elite defender and roll the dice on Hunter Hillenmeyer in the middle.
Hillenmeyer (pictured) is no fool. He has 56 career starts in the NFL and he knows the Bears defense inside and out. The mental side of being a middle linebacker won't be a problem for him. He'll make the right calls. He'll get the Bears in the right defenses. He won't be able to cover as much ground as Urlacher did because he's just not as good an athlete as Urlacher. But I'll roll the dice on him before I sign some guy off the street that nobody else wanted.
Hillenmeyer didn't embarrass himself in the second half the other night in Green Bay. He played OK. As we noted earlier this week, Nathan Vasher and Kevin Payne got beat deep and lost the damn game.
Before we panic, let's at least give Hillenmeyer a chance to play a full game at middle linebacker and see how things go. See how the defense looks this Sunday against Pittsburgh, and then reassess the situation. My guess is, if Hillenmeyer can't get the job done, internal options like Nick Roach or Jamar Williams would still be better than signing Brooks off the street.
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